How a Root Canal Can Severely Affect Your Health

By Hal A. Huggins, DDS, MS - Mercola.com

“You need a root canal!” “Why?”

Do you really “need” a root canal? What are the conventional reasons for performing root canals over the past century?

– Pain
– Deep decay that has invaded the nerve chamber
– Trauma (as in getting hit in the mouth with a baseball bat), and
– Discomfort of unknown reason

But…. What, exactly, are you getting for your money?

As recently as 1906, Mayo Clinic in conjunction with Weston Price DDS, MS as head of research for the dental association of that time, announced that root canals were a haven for disease-producing bacteria. Six PhDs working with Dr. Price for decades, and a team of microbiologists from Mayo Clinic identified these bacteria.

Dr. Price implanted root canal fragments under the skin of the belly of 60,000 rabbits. Results unequivocally proved that diseases of the humans, traveling in the root canaled teeth, could produce the same disease in the rabbit in a matter of weeks. Heart attacks could be transferred 100 percent percent of the time – implicating root canals as one of the primary causes of heart disease.

Root Canals are Breeding Grounds for Bacterial Toxins

Does it surprise you that dentistry has been able to keep this secret for over a century?

Consider the liability. Ask your dentist about this, and watch him/her run, hide, and “fire you as a patient.” Fear of license revocation prevents dentists from disclosing what they have been told does not exist. Dr. Price and Mayo identified dozens of diseases related to bacterial toxins created by bacteria in root canals. If one percent of the people with root canals and subsequent diseases sued their dentist, all the money in the world would be in the hands of lawyers.

Dentists are kept in the dark by conflicting reports by their own associations. Most dental associations say root canals are 97 percent successful, while not defining the term ‘successful.’ The American Association of Endodontists (AAE) says only 90 percent are successful. Back in 1925, Coolidge said 95 percent were successful. The Department of Health and Human Services said in 1984 that there is no way to evaluate the success of a root canal. Burket published that only 42 percent of root canaled teeth were “mechanically” correct in filling the canals. That was in the US. European journals on the topic reported about 30 percent.

Haden published that 87 percent of 1,500 teeth he studied microscopically were contaminated with bacteria. And Okabe published that 72.1 percent of the patients with root canals had bacteremia (i.e. bacteria in the blood that were identical to those found in the root canal tooth).

Most dentists will tell you that a front tooth has a single canal. Dr. Price showed that that same front tooth can have as many as 75 auxiliary canals running from the pulp chamber to the outside of the tooth. Clean and fill 75 canals? Yeah, sure. Especially if you’re not even aware they exist.

How Dental Practices Can Alter Your DNA and Promote Disease

So, how can anyone be sure who’s telling the truth?

DNA testing is currently recognized as being one of the most dependable methods of identifying anything that is living. Or dead, for that matter. Dinosaurs have had their DNA tested. That template is there, dead or alive.

Which brings up my primary concern. Toxins from these bacteria together with mercury from dental amalgam have the ability to alter your DNA. Deletions, substitutions, additions – lots of things can happen to your DNA molecules, or your RNA, which is the “carbon copy” of the original DNA. It’s the RNA that actually does the work of creating proteins that make up your body. Mess up the RNA, and you’re setting yourself up for disease. But, if you alter the DNA of a “germ cell,” that is sperm or egg, and your children – and grandchildren, as long as your family line continues to reproduce – will be forever altered. Alterations of this DNA are permanent. They cannot be reversed.

With DNA alterations readily available due to mercury and bacterial toxins, we now have the opportunity to create many new diseases, and/or birth defects. There are many popular diseases today that were not known a thousand years ago – or even 200 years ago. Sickle cell anemia, for example, was not around until 1910. Multiple sclerosis wasn’t known until (circa) 1832. Leukemia came close on its heels. Diabetes got a strong foot hold just after 1900. Heart disease was then becoming more prevalent – up to nearly 10 percent of the deaths in 1900. Today, it is given credit for being the number one killer! Multiple sclerosis went from an average 8,800 cases per year from 1970 through 1975, then suddenly skyrocketed to 123,000 in 1976.

Are there reasons for these dramatic increases?

Yes. Unfortunately, dental procedures can be implicated in all of these increases.

Are all root canals infected with bacteria? Today, non-invasive testing of the fluid around a root canal tooth by DNA can tell if pathological bacteria are growing along its root. After extraction of the tooth, pathological bacteria can be identified 100 percent of the time.

But, wait! There’s more… It was recently discovered that the bacteria are not confined to the tooth. We tested root fragments and found many bacteria, which is not too surprising. Then we tested the periodontal ligament – the attachment between tooth and bone – and found even more bacteria. There is no way to get to this area to sterilize it. An even more surprising discovery was that the blood surrounding the tooth also contained bacteria – as much as half an inch around the tooth is highly contaminated.

Unfortunately, surgical removal of the offending root canal tooth is not just a matter of yanking it out. There is a protocol that a few brave dentists – who defy the dictates of the dental associations – can perform to protect their patients and rid them of potential disease-producing condominiums called root canals.

What Kind of Diseases are Associated with Root Canals?

We have identified 28 bacteria that the literature reports are related to heart diseases, including heart attack, endocarditis, and heart valve infection. Neurological diseases are in second place with 23 bacteria reported to be causative or contributing factors. Liver function, kidney, breast cancer – the list becomes alarming, so it is time to inform the public what dentists cannot tell you out of fear of retribution from injured patients and their own association. The Dental Association would move from being one of the most respected professions to the least respected…

How many people are affected, and how?

While I cannot list every potential in this article, our figures indicate that over 90 percent of the patients seeking help for dental related problems suffer from chronic fatigue, and that’s just one example. How tiring can bacteria be? One group certainly can contribute. They are called “porins.” Few doctors and even fewer humans have ever heard of porins. The word comes from “pores.” These bacteria drill holes in red blood cells – pores – that allow hemoglobin to escape into the surrounding blood where the bacteria are lurking to suck up the iron. These bacteria, the porin producers, have a very high appetite for iron, and hemoglobin furnishes a never ending supply.

Once a red blood cell has a few pores punched in it – a sleeve is inserted as well, such that the red blood cell cannot heal – the red cell bleeds to death. Now the liver has to process all that hemoglobin scrap relieved of its iron, and calm the body from irritations due to the red cell contents being where they do not belong.

Another new kid on the block that may be dentally related is meningitis, which is a growing epidemic. When reading an article about the need for another meningitis vaccine, I recalled seeing meningitis listed as an effect of a few different bacteria that thrive in root canals and cavitations. Capnocytophaga ochnacea; Gemella morbillorum; Klebsiella oxytoca; Neisseria meningitidis; Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and a few more.

For explanation, cavitations and root canal bacteria are grouped together in our testing of over 400 samples, as both are eliminated simultaneously. Cavitations are bony holes almost always (4,999 out of a measured 5,000) left after extraction of wisdom teeth. The sockets rarely heal and become lined with pathogenic anaerobic bacteria. This newspaper said that we need to vaccinate teenagers because meningitis is a potentially fatal disease that comes on fast. With these bacteria occurring in the sockets of wisdom teeth, and wisdom tooth extractions being popular with teens, is there a connection?

Here, you have a choice: to vaccinate or prevent.

Cleaning out a cavitation is a tricky procedure, and in many states an oral surgeon who cleans one out will lose his license, for cavitations “do not exist.” Yeah. Try dropping into one that is two centimeters big and tell me it doesn’t exist! General dentists can do it without as much threat.

Another new one is the human papilloma virus (HPV). We just identified two bacteria associated with HPV in dental implants.

Beware: Antibiotics are NOT the Answer

Why not just give everyone lots of antibiotics? Because most antibiotics are what are called “bactericidal,” meaning they explode the bacteria, causing even more grief for your immune system. Instead of having one bacterium to destroy, now your system has a hundred little pieces called “endotoxins” to dispose of. Besides, there are other side effects to the use of massive antibiotics, such as the destruction of beneficial gut bacteria, which also dampens your immune system.

Check out our previous article: Oil Pulling To Prevent And Treat Damage To Teeth

It has been over 100 years since Mayo and Dr. Price announced their findings, but you do not have to wait another 100 years to protect yourself, your RNA, or the future DNA of the human race. This is a serious accusation. One that is very logical and provable by today’s DNA science. Scientists know it is possible. Now you do too.

Source: mercola.com

How to Naturally Protect your Teeth from Cavities

by Derek Henry | Natural News

Image: wellnessmama.com

The world is slowly waking up to the fact that, when you give the body what it needs, it can heal things we previously thought were impossible. A fine example of what is often deemed as an incurable health problem is dental cavities, but extensive research is now becoming more public about the true nature of tooth decay and the fact that there are proven remedies that can remedy it.

The lies perpetrated about tooth decay

According to the American Dental Association, the reason we have tooth decay is as follows:

“[Tooth decay] occurs when foods containing carbohydrates (sugars and starches) such as milk, pop, raisins, cakes or candy are frequently left on the teeth. Bacteria that live in the mouth thrive on these foods, producing acids as a result. Over a period of time, these acids destroy tooth enamel, resulting in tooth decay.”

There are a few problems with this theory, including:

• Groups of indigenous people who had fermentable carbohydrates stuck on their teeth all the time that did not brush or floss were mostly or completely free of tooth decay.
• Bacteria do not consume processed sugar or flour because of the lack of nutrients in them.
• Foods that bacteria like to eat, such as milk, vegetables, meat, fish and fruit, are not commonly implicated in causes of tooth decay.

So if the modern explanation of tooth decay is not accurate, what is actually the cause of tooth decay?

What actually causes tooth decay

Tooth decay, as researched by Dr. Weston Price and other dental pioneers, boiled down to three factors:

• Not enough minerals in the diet.
• Not enough fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) in the diet.
• Nutrients not being readily bioavailable, and your intestinal system not properly absorbing them. The presence of phytic acid largely influences this factor.

Over a period of time, if your diet lacks vitamins and minerals from a poor diet and/or contains high levels of phytates (from grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes), the blood chemistry and the ratio of calcium and phosphorous become out of balance, which results in minerals being pulled from bones, causing tooth and bone loss.

So, the long-standing belief that sugar causes tooth decay is true, but as a result of it depleting nutrients from the body, not because bacteria eat it and produce acid that ruins your teeth.

The food remedies that can heal cavities and tooth decay

In order to restore the ratio of calcium and phosphorus in our blood, and to enable minerals to bond to our teeth, it is not enough to just avoid eating too many sweet or processed foods. We must also eat health-building foods, containing copious amounts of minerals and vitamins that will build a glassy hard tooth structure.

Foods to focus on are:

• Coconut oil, grass-fed organic dairy (especially butter), grass-fed meats, seafood and bone broths.
• Organic cooked vegetables (soups with bone broth are ideal).
• Organ and gland meats, like liver.

Limit foods that are high in phytic acid, like grains, beans, nuts and seeds, as well as limiting processed food intake full of processed flours and sugars that upset blood sugar balance.

Supplements to consider are:

• Fermented cod liver oil – very high in fat soluble vitamins A, D and K.
• Magnesium – required to use calcium and phosphorous effectively.
• Gelatin – if you don’t have time to make bone broth, this is a good alternative and is great for gums and digestion.

Source: naturalnews.com

The Facts, Stats and Dangers of Soda Pop

PreventDisease.com

Kids are heavy consumers of soft drinks, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and they are guzzling soda pop at unprecedented rates.

Carbonated soda pop provides more added sugar in a typical 2-year-old toddler's diet than cookies, candies and ice cream combined.

Image: Dave Sommers

Fifty-six percent of 8-year-olds down soft drinks daily, and a third of teenage boys drink at least three cans of soda pop per day.

• These popular beverages account for more than a quarter of all drinks consumed in the United States.
• More than 15 billion gallons were sold in 2000.
• That works out to at least one 12-ounce can per day for every man, woman and child.

Not only are soft drinks widely available everywhere, from fast food restaurants to video stores, they're now sold in 60 percent of all public and private middle schools and high schools nationwide, according to the National Soft Drink Association. A few schools are even giving away soft drinks to students who buy school lunches.

As soda pop becomes the beverage of choice among the nation's young -- and as soda marketers focus on brand-building among younger and younger consumers -- public health officials, school boards, parents, consumer groups and even the soft drink industry are faced with nagging questions:

• How healthful are these beverages, which provide a lot calories, sugars and caffeine but no significant nutritional value? 
• And what happens if you drink a lot of them at a very young age?

Recently, representatives of the soft drink industry, concerned that public opinion and public policy may turn against them, will staged a three-day "fly-in" to lobby Congress to maintain soft drinks sales in schools; and to educate lawmakers on the "proper perspective" on soft drink use.

The industry plans to counter a US Department of Agriculture proposal, announced in January, that would require all foods sold in schools to meet federal nutrition standards. That would mean that snack foods and soft drinks would have to meet the same standards as school lunches.

Nearly everyone by now has heard the litany on the presumed health effects of soft drinks:

• Obesity
• Tooth decay
• Caffeine dependence
• Weakened bones

But does drinking soda pop really cause those things?

To help separate fact from fiction, the Health section reviewed the latest scientific findings and asked an array of experts on both sides of the debate to weigh in on the topic. Be forewarned, however: Compared with the data available on tobacco and even dietary fat, the scientific evidence on soft drinks is less developed. The results can be a lot like soft drinks themselves, both sweet and sticky.

Obesity

One very recent, independent, peer-reviewed study demonstrates a strong link between soda consumption and childhood obesity.

One previous industry-supported, unpublished study showed no link. Explanations of the mechanism by which soda may lead to obesity have not yet been proved, though the evidence for them is strong.

Many people have long assumed that soda -- high in calories and sugar, low in nutrients -- can make kids fat. But until this month there was no solid, scientific evidence demonstrating this.

Reporting in The Lancet, a British medical journal, a team of Harvard researchers presented the first evidence linking soft drink consumption to childhood obesity. They found that 12-year-olds who drank soft drinks regularly were more likely to be overweight than those who didn't.

For each additional daily serving of sugar-sweetened soft drink consumed during the nearly two-year study, the risk of obesity increased 1.6 times.

Obesity experts called the Harvard findings important and praised the study for being prospective. In other words, the Harvard researchers spent 19 months following the children, rather than capturing a snapshot of data from just one day. It's considered statistically more valuable to conduct a study over a long period of time.

Researchers found that schoolchildren who drank soft drinks consumed almost 200 more calories per day than their counterparts who didn't down soft drinks. That finding helps support the notion that we don't compensate well for calories in liquid form.

Tooth Decay

Here's one health effect that even the soft drink industry admits, grudgingly, has merit. In a carefully worded statement, the NSDA says that "there's no scientific evidence that consumption of sugars per se has any negative effect other than dental caries." But the association also correctly notes that soft drinks aren't the sole cause of tooth decay.

In fact, a lot of sugary foods, from fruit juices to candy and even raisins and other dried fruit, have what dentists refer to as "cariogenic properties," which is to say they can cause tooth decay.

Okay, so how many more cavities are soft drink consumers likely to get compared with people who don't drink soda? This is where it gets complicated.

A federally funded study of nearly 3,200 Americans 9 to 29 years old conducted between 1971 and 1974 showed a direct link between tooth decay and soft drinks. Numerous other studies have shown the same link throughout the world, from Sweden to Iraq.

But sugar isn't the only ingredient in soft drinks that causes tooth problems. The acids in soda pop are also notorious for etching tooth enamel in ways that can lead to cavities. "Acid begins to dissolve tooth enamel in only 20 minutes," notes the Ohio Dental Association in a release issued earlier this month.

Caffeine Dependence

The stimulant properties and dependence potential of caffeine in soda are well documented, as are their effects on children.

Ever tried going without your usual cup of java on the weekend? If so, you may have experienced a splitting headache, a slight rise in blood pressure, irritability and maybe even some stomach problems.

These well-documented symptoms describe the typical withdrawal process suffered by about half of regular caffeine consumers who go without their usual dose.

The soft drink industry agrees that caffeine causes the same effects in children as adults, but officials also note that there is wide variation in how people respond to caffeine. The simple solution, the industry says, is to choose a soda pop that is caffeine-free. All big soda makers offer products with either low or no caffeine.

That may be a good idea, though it raises the question of whether soda machines in schools should be permitted to offer caffeinated beverages or at least be obligated to offer a significant proportion of caffeine-free products.

It also raises the question of how one determines a product's caffeine content. Nutrition labels are not required to divulge that information. If a beverage contains caffeine, it must be included in the ingredient list, but there's no way to tell how much a beverage has, and there's little logic or predictability to the way caffeine is deployed throughout a product line.

Okay, so most enlightened consumers already know that colas contain a fair amount of caffeine. It turns out to be 35 to 38 milligrams per 12-ounce can, or roughly 28 percent of the amount found in an 8-ounce cup of coffee. But few know that diet colas -- usually chosen by those who are trying to dodge calories and/or sugar -- often pack a lot more caffeine.

A 12-ounce can of Diet Coke, for example, has about 42 milligrams of caffeine -- seven more than the same amount of Coke Classic. A can of Pepsi One has about 56 milligrams of caffeine -- 18 milligrams more than both regular Pepsi and Diet Pepsi.

Even harder to figure out is the caffeine distribution in other flavors of soda pop. Many brands of root beer contain no caffeine. An exception is Barq's, made by the Coca-Cola Co., which has has 23 milligrams per 12-ounce can. Sprite, 7-Up and ginger ale are caffeine-free. But Mountain Dew, the curiously named Mello Yellow, Sun Drop Regular, Jolt and diet as well as regular Sunkist orange soda all pack caffeine.

Caffeine occurs naturally in kola nuts, an ingredient of cola soft drinks. But why is this drug, which is known to create physical dependence, added to other soft drinks?

The industry line is that small amounts are added for taste, not for the drug's power to sustain demand for the products that contain it. Caffeine's bitter taste, they say, enhances other flavors. "It has been a part of almost every cola -- and pepper-type beverage -- since they were first formulated more than 100 years ago," according to the National Soft Drink Association.

But recent blind taste tests conducted by Roland Griffiths at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore found that only 8 percent of regular soft drink consumers could identify the difference between regular and caffeine-free soft drinks.

The study included only subjects who reported that they drank soft drinks mainly for their caffeine content. In other words, more than 90 percent of the self-diagnosed caffeine cravers in this small sample could not detect the presence of caffeine.

That's why the great popularity of caffeinated soft drinks is driven not so much by subtle taste effects as by the mood-altering and physical dependence of caffeine that drives the daily self-administration.

And the unknown could be especially troublesome for the developing brains of children and adolescents. Logic dictates that when you are dependent on a drug, you are really upsetting the normal balances of neurochemistry in the brain. The fact that kids have withdrawal signs and symptoms when the caffeine is stopped is a good indication that something has been profoundly disturbed in the brain.

Exactly where that leads is anybody's guess -- which is to say there is little good research on the effects of caffeine on kids' developing brains.

Bone Weakening

Animal studies demonstrate that phosphorus, a common ingredient in soda, can deplete bones of calcium.

And two recent human studies suggest that girls who drink more soda are more prone to broken bones. The industry denies that soda plays a role in bone weakening.

Animal studies -- mostly involving rats -- point to clear and consistent bone loss with the use of cola beverages. But as scientists like to point out, humans and rats are not exactly the same.

Even so, there's been concern among the research community, public health officials and government agencies over the high phosphorus content in the US diet. Phosphorus -- which occurs naturally in some foods and is used as an additive in many others -- appears to weaken bones by promoting the loss of calcium. With less calcium available, the bones become more porous and prone to fracture.

The soft drink industry argues that the phosphoric acid in soda pop contributes only about 2 percent of the phosphorus in the typical US diet, with a 12-ounce can of soda pop averaging about 30 milligrams.

There's growing concern that even a few cans of soda today can be damaging when they are consumed during the peak bone-building years of childhood and adolescence. A 1996 study published in the Journal of Nutrition by the FDA's Office of Special Nutritionals noted that a pattern of high phosphorus/low calcium consumption, common in the American diet, is not conducive to optimizing peak bone mass in young women.

A 1994 Harvard study of bone fractures in teenage athletes found a strong association between cola beverage consumption and bone fractures in 14-year-old girls. The girls who drank cola were about five times more likely to suffer bone fractures than girls who didn't consume soda pop.

Besides, to many researchers, the combination of rising obesity and bone weakening has the potential to synergistically undermine future health. Adolescents and kids don't think long-term. But what happens when these soft-drinking people become young or middle-aged adults and they have osteoporosis, sedentary living and obesity?

By that time, switching to water, milk or fruit juice may be too little, too late.

AUTHOR: Sally Squires

Source: http://preventdisease.com/home/tips43.shtml

Sugar is far worse than most of us realize

Natural Cures Not Medicine on Facebook: www.facebook.com/naturalcuresnotmedicine

Sugar causes inflammation and inflammation is linked to all degenerative diseases. 

Source: Dave Sommers

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